A Basketball Player, Model, or maybe Volleyball Olympic Star...

We had Jenna's two-year doctor appointment last week. Everything looks good, her vocabulary and speaking skills are advanced, even if she sometimes gets her pronouns confused, and there were no needed shots. But, the thing I was most excited about is this great news...

She is going to 5 feet 9 inches tall when she is at her grown adult height!!!! If you take a toddlers height at two years old and double it, that should be their adult height! 5'9"...YAY!! She will not have short stubby legs like me! She will be taller than me. I've always wished I were taller, I'm average, 5'4.5" (thank you very much for the 1/2 an inch.)

Jenna, I'm so happy for you! (and a little jealous)

We Survived!

We managed to survive Jenna's birthday on the 19th and then six different Christmases between the 20-25th! We saw lots of family and some family who haven't seen Jenna in over a year! They all said how good, cute, smart, funny she is! She was really well behaved...I guess I owe her a couple suckers for that one!

Jenna received so many presents she actually got sick of opening them. We just finished the last of them yesterday! She loved opening presents this year and also loved handing out presents to other people. She told me that Santa was going to bring her two presents, so Santa...Way to go! You exceeded her expectations! Her big gift from Santa was a large party time play kitchen. She loves "cooking" things now, and is always bringing me coffee.

We are now headed into a week of Jenna and Mommy time, as I'm off work and daycare is closed. Daddy will be at work, so I hope with all of her new toys we can keep busy. Now we just have to figure out homes for all of her new stuff...I hear a storage shed calling our name, or I would be happy with $20,000 to finish our basement!

Some Birthday Pictures









Christmas Pictures

Precious Words...

Just a quick post, but I wanted to share the cutest thing! As I've said before, Jenna often talks in full sentence's now. When she wants me to hold her she says (in her most desperate and whiny voice):

"I want to hold you Mama."

Isn't that so cute? It is too funny to hear her say it and I laugh every time.


Hope everyone has a healthy and happy Holiday. Merry Christmas!

Dear Jenna - Happy Birthday

Dear Jenna,

Today you are two years old! I really don't know where the time went. You are now a little girl instead of a baby! Everyday you continue to amaze and me and your dad. Today we are having a snow storm, which is very different from the day you were born. Your daddy was so good at taking notes while I was in labor with you, and it was a partly sunny day with hardly any snow on the ground.

There are moments when I am just caught up in how fast you have grown and how big you have gotten. Sometimes, to me, you still feel like my little baby ; but then I look at you on my lap and your legs hang down to my knees, or I see a newborn baby in the store and can hardly believe, or remember, when you were ever that little.

This age seems to really be a favorite for us as parents. You cannot possibly be any cuter than when you are trying to sing a song. Your favorites are "Row Row Row Your Boat", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "ABC's", and "Rock-a-bye a Bear". I have to get you singing on video to cherish it forever.

Your vocabulary is never ending and new words are spoken every day. Sometimes we don't even know where you learned some of the things you say. You also like to clean! While this makes me very happy, you aren't the most patient person, and when the cleaning bug comes over you, you NEED a Clorox wipe NOW! You also love to dance, actually, usually it looks like a jumping spazzing type of alternative dance.

You are such a girly girl sometimes too, you love princesses and dresses. You also like to tell your animals, "He's nice" or "He's cute!" Things are cute or pretty to you. But...there is a "Handy Manny" side to you too. You are able to open the drawers in the kitchen now and you always get the screwdriver out and "fix" your toys and try to put "new batteries" in them. When you get out the screwdriver I always have a slight panic attack. I've read too many horror stories of kids running with them and having bad accidents. That is why I only let you play with it when you are sitting down and I'm right there. I can tell by your tantrums when I take it away that you don't understand this now, but someday you will thank me!

You also seem to be a creature of habit. Every morning when you get up you ask for cartoons, milk, and a poptart. (I know, it's not the best thing for you to eat, and I will not get MOM OF THE YEAR for this one, but when I'm trying to get ready for work, I need you to be not throwing tantrums, sorry!) I'm trying to wean you off of them.

When all is said and done, you are the light of our lives. We love you so much and take so much joy in you every day. We are so proud of you and lucky to have you in our lives. I look forward to every day with you. Happy 2nd Birthday sweetie!

Love always and forever,

Mama

My Little Alarm Clock

Dear Jenna,

I just want to make sure you know I have an alarm clock right next to my bed. You don't need to take on the responsibility of getting me up. I appreciate you want to see Mommy and Daddy right away in the morning, but we need to get something clear. You are usually such a good sleeper, and I LOVE that about you, but I don't need you to wake me up at 5:35 am on Saturday morning. I don't ask for much, 7am would have been nice!

I also don't need the constant reminder for the two hours it is still dark out, of you saying over and over again, "Dark out Mama, dark out." Yes, it tends to be dark at quarter to six in the morning! That is what happens when you wake up that early.
Please try to remember this in the future.

Love always,
Your tired Mama

I Flying!

Update: We are recovering from the ER incident! Jenna has her bandages and wraps off and her hand is looking good. She is a drama queen though. She actually misses her "pretty glove" and wants her special lotion. We are now putting Neosporin on her fingers. Every once in a while she will say "hand hurt" or "ouchie" but I think she just knows that is her ouchie and wants attention! Her pinkeye is also gone, but we are still dealing with the eye drops! This usually involves a bribe of some sort to get her to lay down. The last couple of times the bribe has been to "fly", which leads me to the post below!

One of Jenna's new things is the run around the house with her arms out to the side and yell:

"I flying!! I flying!! Look, Daddy look!"

I caught a couple pictures of it last night, excuse the blurriness, it must have been because she was flying so fast! She also wants us to fly her and we do that first until we are out of breath and our arms hurt. It's not so easy to "fly" an almost 30 pound person while you are running around! Here she is in action!

Our Trip to the ER!

UGH! Last night was so sad! We knew sooner or later this would happen to our hyper, crazy, clumsy little girl, but we had our first trip to the ER last night!

Jenna burnt her hand on the glass cover/door of a gas fireplace! It was so sad and so hard to watch as a parent! Erik said he wished his foot was cut off instead of her being hurt. She screamed and screamed! We took her to CMCH and the staff there were great! THANK YOU! They rushed her right back without us even checking in of filling out any paperwork and treated her wonderfully. They immediately put her hand in some soapy type water stuff and she calmed down a little bit, then gave her a double dose of Tylenol and Motrin. She got "special lotion" on her hand followed by a "pretty glove" and then a Popsicle.

To make things even worse, she also has pink eye in both eyes! She is at home healing today and being indited with Tylenol, Motrin and eyes drops! This morning we had to take the dressing off and put more "special lotion" on it and re-dress it. This lotion is SO special that if exposed to sunlight it will discolor your skin, so we have to be very careful with her and only have it on her when she is totally bandaged up. My poor little girl!

At least we've made it through our first trip to the ER!